This introduction covers Setting the Scene within The Great Plague for GCSE History. Revise The Great Plague in Medicine Through Time for GCSE History with 8 exam-style questions and 5 flashcards. This topic appears less often, but it can still be a useful differentiator on mixed-topic papers. It is section 1 of 10 in this topic. Use this introduction to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
Topic position
Section 1 of 10
Practice
8 questions
Recall
5 flashcards
📖 Setting the Scene
Over 300 years after the Black Death, plague returned to London in 1665. Samuel Pepys recorded the growing terror in his diary: seeing red crosses painted on doors, hearing the cry "Bring out your dead!" By September, over 7,000 Londoners were dying per week. The King fled to Oxford. The wealthy escaped to the countryside. The poor were locked in their houses, often with infected family members. Had medicine progressed? In terms of understanding the cause — barely. The same theories from 1348 were still being used in 1665.